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Maithiripala
Sirisena sworn-in as seventh president of Sri Lanka
World
> Sri
Lanka > Jan 10
On
9th January 2015, Shri Maithiripala Sirisena full name Pallewatte
Gamaralalage Maithripala Yapa Sirisena was sworn-in as the seventh
President of Sri Lanka. The oath taking ceremony held at the
Independence square in Colombo, saw Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court judge
Honorable K Sri Pawan administering the oath of office to
Maithiripala Sirisena. The event was preceded by the oath taking
ceremony of the leader of the United National Party (UNP) Ranil
Wickramasinghe as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.
Mithripala
Sirisena, Health Minister in Rajapaksa government, won the 2015
Presidential Elections of Sri Lanka held on eight January 2015 by
defeating incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa from United People’s
Freedom Alliance by 51.28 % of votes and Opposition candidate
Maithripala samisen from United National Party got 51.3 % of the
votes.
SC
orders enabling of e-voting by NRIs within eight weeks
Politics
and Government >
E-voting by NRIs > Jan 12
The
plea filed by Pravasi Bharat chairman Nagender Chindam asking central
government to enable e-voting by NRIs within eight weeks of elections
has been cleared by the Supreme Court.
The
report was filed after considering opinions from all sections by a
committee comprising officials from the EC, law ministry and the
ministry of external affairs. Under the proposal, NRIs will be sent
ballot papers electronically and they will have to return it to poll
authorities physically. The report was filed to dispute
the “inherent inequality” created by Section 20(A) of the
Representation of the People (RP) Act which insists on the physical
presence of an NRI in his local constituency at the time of voting.
Zomato
enters US, acquires Urbanspoon
Corporate
> Zomato > Jan 13
Zomato
enters US following a deal with Urbanspoon costing around $60 million
(Rs 373 crore), which will be an all-cash transaction. With Zomato's
sixth and the biggest acquisition, it aims to double its traffic from
about 35 million visits per months to more than 80 million visits per
month, probably making it the largest restaurant search company in
the world. This move makes Zomata the biggest competitor of Yelp
which boasts of 139 mn unique monthly visitors during the third
quarter of 2014. The acquisition will result in Zomato's presence in
22 countries across the world and a rise in its restaurant coverage
from about 300000 restaurants to more than 1 million restaurants
across the globe.
Zomato
is looking forward to expand its customer base with the popularity of
Urbanspoon by offering its customers a number of new capabilities and
features.
Islamic
militants kill 12 in deadly attacks on French satirical weekly
Charlie Hebdo, prompt worldwide outcry
World
> Charlie
Hebdo
Shootings > Jan 13
On
7th January, 2015, two masked gunman attacked the office of the
French satirical weekly, Charlie Hebdo in Paris and shot dead 12
people including the editor in the middle of a news conference. The
men shouted Allah-hu-Akbar as they went on with their rampage and
shouted that they were avenging the prophet. Charlie Hebdo had
previously been in the news for its alleged mockery of Prophet
Mohammed and had attracted the ire of the Islamic world. Police
tracked the gunmen, identified as brothers Cherif Kouachi, 32, and
Said Kouachi, 34, to a town, 25 miles northeast of Paris. A
gun-battle ensued in which police killed the two gunmen and succeeded
in freeing a sole hostage.
On
9th January, another gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, held people hostage at
a kosher super-market in eastern Paris and shot dead 4 people. The
gunman seemed to have ties with the two brothers involved in the
Charlie Hebdo attack and had earlier threatened to kill the hostages
if police launched an assault on the cornered brothers. Police
stormed the supermarket and succeeded in killing the gunman and
freeing the hostages. The supermarket was located in a predominantly
Jewish locality of Paris. All the three gunmen had ties with Jihadist
militants and were allegedly trained by the Al-Qaeda in Syria.
France
has the highest number of Jewish population in entire Europe. A sense
of insecurity has engulfed the community following the attacks and
many Jews are permanently moving to Israel from France. On 11 January
2015, 3.7 million people including more than 40 world leaders, met in
Paris for a rally of national unity to honour the 17 victims. This
was the largest public rally in France since World War II. The phrase
Je suis Charlie (French for "I am Charlie") came to be a
common worldwide sign of solidarity against the attacks. The
surviving staff of the magazine announced plans for a print run of
three million copies for the next week's issue rather than its
typical 60,000. The "survivors' issue" of Charlie Hebdo
will also be sold outside France.
Others
Subramanian
Swamy claims Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin killed Netaji Subhash
Chandra Bose
India
> S
C Bose Killing > Jan 10
BJP leader Subramanian Swamy
has sparked a controversy by stating that Netaji Subhash Chandra did
not die in a plane crash as was believed earlier, but was killed by
Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Swamy also demanded the
declassification of files pertaining to the freedom fighter's death
from the union government. However, Swamy later admitted that
disclosing those files would jeopardise India's relations with
Britain and Russia.
IS
group hacks US Central Command's social media accounts
World
> ISIS > Jan 13
US Central Command Twitter
and YouTube accounts were compromised as the Islamic State jihadists
hacked them, replacing the CentCom's usual logo with a banner with
the image of a hooded fighter and the words "CyberCaliphate"
and "I love you ISIS". Incidentally, the hacking of
CentCom's social media account came while Barack Obama was delivering
a speech on cyber security.
The seized Twitter feed
flashed the self-styled CyberCaliphate "is already here, we are
in your PCs, in each military base," written by the hackers. The
motive behind the hacking is still unclear. The matter is being
investigated by the officials.
Pakistan
asks for US help to resolve issues with India regarding Kashmir
India
> Border
Disputes > Jan 13
At a joint conference held
by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Pakistan's National Security
Advisor Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan announced that it will not hold any
talks with India unless Kashmir is a part of the dialogue. The
statement comes in the light of India cancelling bilateral talks with
Pakistan after the latter was involved in unprovoked cross border
firing. Pakistan also appealed to the US, which has considerable
influence in international affairs, to ask India to resume bilateral
talks and include Kashmir as a component of the talks.
US
Secretary of State John Kerry tells Pakistan to eliminate all
terrorist groups
World
> Pakistan > Jan 13
In the aftermath of the
terrorist attack in a Peshawar school, US Secretary of State John
Kerry has appealed Pakistan to eliminate all terrorist organisations,
which are a threat to Indian, Afghan and American interests. Pakistan
has been often suspected of playing a double game by providing a safe
haven to terrorist organisations, while simultaneously taking a
stance against terrorism. John Kerry who is currently on an official
visit to Pakistan also addressed the recent border disputes between
India and Pakistan and said that the two countries need to sort
differences and resume peace talks.
Chinese
province bans burqa
World
> China > Jan 14
Legislators in Xinjiang
province of China have passed a law which prohibits residents from
wearing a burqa, citing religious extremism. Recent incidents of
communal violence among Turkish speaking Muslims and China's largest
ethnic group have increased tensions in the province of Xinjiang. In
the month of August another city in the province banned people
wearing Islamic-style clothing and beards from using public buses.
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